Second Verse
Chapter 12 -- Sire's Help
When Xander next woke, he lay alone in the bed with his right arm twisted uncomfortably, the chain tangled with the sheet and pillow. He sat up and worked at getting the chain loose before he noticed that Spike was nowhere to be seen. Thinking back over the previous evening, he felt dirty. How could he for one minute accept Spike's embrace? How sick was he that he would trade in dignity for a hand job and a snarky smile?
He threw himself down on his back and stared at the ceiling. He had to find a way to get away before he completely lost himself in these feelings, especially since he now knew that many of the feelings weren't truly his. Xander considered all his options, but he knew that in the end he had only one real choice: kill Spike. Xander felt his whole body physically jerk and tense at that thought. Okay, so maybe the choice was closer to try and kill Spike because he didn't know if he actually could, but one murder attempt, and someone would die. One way or the other, he would free himself. Being dead had to be better than slowly losing his mind and his self-control.
He squirmed on the bed and prayed for Spike to get back soon; two days in a row of peeing himself wasn't good on the ego. Shit, no wonder he was so damn messed up in the head—he spent his time waiting for and trying to please the very creature he should kill. The internal howl started again, and Xander forcibly silenced it. He chanted Sesame Street songs and gritted his teeth until the howl had retreated to some far corner.
He was busy singing, "Remember just to whisper softly into my ear, I won't leave and go away, You know I'm gonna be right here," when the voice interrupted him.
"What? And you complain about my music?" Xander jumped at the sound of Spike voice. Opening his eyes, he found a smiling vampire leaning against the open hallway door.
"Spike! Thank god. I have to pee."
"I swear, you humans spend all your time either putting stuff in your body or sendin' it out again." Spike may have complained, but he did walk over while pulling the key out of his pocket. Xander waited for him to pull open the one manacle before pushing Spike out of the way and dashing for the bathroom. He actually found himself grateful for his nudity because he wasn't sure he would have had time to pull down pants.
"What the hell were you singing, pet?" floated in a voice from the other side of the metal half-wall.
"It's from Sesame Street; it's the llama song."
"Oi, you have to learn some musical taste."
"Hey, I like that second verse," he yelled back over the cubical wall since his bladder was still emptying itself. Only once he had taken care of his 'inconvenient' human needs did he find himself embarrassed by his nudity.
"Spike?" he yelled from inside the bathroom cubicle.
"What?"
"Do you have any clothes I could wear?" Xander barely caught the clothing that sailed over the top of the bathroom stall. The gray jeans were back, cleaned. Xander wondered if that meant the vampires did laundry or if Spike made someone do his laundry for him. This time the shirt was a red silk very similar to the one Carlos had lent him on his one night of running food at Glitters. While he'd lost other jobs after one night, never before had he regretted it so much. With a sigh he slipped into the clothes and left his sanctuary. He found Spike in the main room sitting in the chair watching the small television. From the show, Xander guessed it must be around 6 or 7, too early for the vampire to have gone out.
"Where were you?"
"Sewers. Needed to do some listenin', pet."
"Listening for what?"
"Rumors. You put on a nice show last night, and now I just need to listen up and catch enough juicy bits to fix that wanker good." Spike leaned back in the chair, but Xander could see the muscles in his arms flex. Spike may have put on a semblance of relaxation, but every muscle was tensed.
"I assume the wanker in question is Cassidy,” Xander commented as he leaned against the door frame.
"Yeah."
"And the show was…" Xander allowed his voice to trail off. He felt awkward around Spike now, and he didn't know whether that came from last night's punishment or this morning's realization that only one of them would survive.
"You. When the other vamps saw that Cassidy couldn't even keep a pet's loyalty, they started to question whether or not to follow him. If I'd dominated your demon—taken over the claim—that'd show I was stronger, but doin' it this way with you still holdin' his claim, it shows that he's so weak that his pet went lookin' for someone strong enough to hold a claim. Worked slightly better than I thought. All sorts of people who wouldn't talk earlier are singin' their hearts out." Xander thought about the silent faces that had watched when they left the bar the previous evening.
"Cassidy has to get me back to prove he's not weak," he said as he leaned heavily against the doorframe since his legs now seemed incapable of carrying his weight.
"He'll try," Spike agreed from the chair.
"Oh shit." Spike hadn't tried to enforce the claim, but he knew that Cassidy wouldn't hold back. Cassidy had to prove that he could, how did Spike once put it, beat or fuck Xander into submission. Shit. He had an irrational desire to beg Spike for protection, but he reminded himself that Spike had set the situation up in the first place. Spike saw him as a dog, an animal who, even if you care about them, is expendable. Xander repeated that to himself until the urge to crawl into Spike's lap and cry had passed. Besides, he now realized that Spike's own brand of affection probably had little to do caring; he just wanted a way to get back at Cassidy.
"So, more demon bars tonight?" he tried for nonchalant, but he knew that his voice actually came out closer to desperation. He really didn't want to spend more time kneeling at Spike's feet; he was messed up in the head enough already.
"No, we're meetin' Peaches first, then a few human bars."
"Peaches? We're meeting with Angelus?" This time Xander realized his voice had gone up into the squeaking range.
"It’s all right, pet. Got his soul now, won't hurt ya," Spike stood up and started pacing the room. "'Course his soul's a pretty impermanent thing, but we won't be 'round long."
"Impermanent?" Xander asked, unsure how that worked.
"Yeah. He fell for some bint, and when the Master killed her, he tried to save her. Tried to use bloody CPR only he managed to put her in a coma instead of bringin' her back. He got his broody guilt up so high, some magic-type in Sunnydale tried to make him happy. Turns out that if he gets happy enough, the soul just sort of floats away."
"What exactly do you mean 'floats away'?"
"Just that, pet. His soul left, and Sunnydale got to meet the soulless Angelus or rather an angry version of Angelus that had been trapped behind a soul for a century or so. From the stories I heard all the way in Europe, it wasn't pretty. He did a lot of damage before they could magic his soul back into him."
"And we're meeting him….why?!"
"Cause he knows mojo, and that place last night reeked of it. Mojo and somethin' else that just don't feel right." Xander was so distracted by the thought of a soul doing a disappearing act that the second comment slipped by him for a moment so that Spike had actually started for the stairs before he could respond.
"Wait," Xander franticly cried. "We can't go to the neighborhood now."
"My sire's waitin', and while annoying the pouf isn't a problem, we need to meet him." Xander felt cool hands at his arms, pushing him up the stairs.
"But…but Gunn…th-the guys, they'll be out now," Xander stuttered. Panic reached new levels as the fear from last night flared into outright horror.
"I won't kill your mates," Spike sighed, and Xander felt one hand tighten as Spike stopped him at the top of the stairs so he could open the padlock with his free hand.
"But what if they…I mean, they could start something."
"Worried about me, pet?" Spike asked as they stepped out into the night, the sky still grey from last dregs of the sunset. Spike's pleased tone make Xander shrink into himself. For a moment he wished that Spike would just be a little more vampire-like so he didn't have to feel so damn bad about trying to kill him.
"I just don't want to end up Cassidy-kibble," he finally complained.
"Won't happen, luv." By now they had reached the bike, and Spike quickly slipped on and held out a hand for Xander. God, he was back to charming. Xander gave up trying to understand the annoying vampire and settled for wrapping his arms around the slim waist and closing his eyes in an attempt to ignore the questionable driving skills. Of course, if Spike liked him, that only made it easier to kill him when the time came. This time the wail in his head felt more distant—almost muffled.
When they stopped outside the theater this time, Xander saw the big black convertible, but he didn't see either Gunn or Gunn's truck. He just prayed that the guys wouldn't show up. Xander scooted off the bike and waited for Spike nervously. He had to grit his teeth to avoid chanting 'hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.'
"Oi, stop broodin'. If I gotta deal with Peaches, I can't take you too." Xander flinched when Spike threw an arm around his waist to guide him to the now-open front door causing Spike to quirk an eyebrow in silent query.
"It's nothing. I just want to get this over with and leave before anyone sees us. We aren't exactly inconspicuous here," Xander complained with a wave toward the vehicles in front the open front door with boards thrown about on the sidewalk.
"Yeah, not subtle, but Peaches never was." Spike nodded toward a figure now coming out of the newly opened front door, and Xander watched as a tall hunk of a man came out of the theater. Where Spike was all angles and sharpness, this man was curves. His arm muscles curved with one muscle disappearing into another. His chest curved in a manly broad-chested sort of way, his walk even seemed to roll in gentle curves where Spike had a brisk, energetic stride. If this was the famous "Peaches," vampire families obviously didn't share many traits. The man dropped a crowbar into the back of the black convertible before picking up a long-sleeved shirt and putting it on over the t-shirt he wore.
"William," came a deep, calm voice, and Xander glanced behind them to see who the man had addresses.
"He means me, ya git." Spike tightened the arm around his waist while Xander nodded knowingly and made a small "oh" gesture with his mouth.
"What have you gotten into this time?" Xander heard the tone and couldn't help think of his own father; the disapproval and disrespect dripped from Angelus' mouth. He wondered how Angelus would take it if he managed to kill Spike. He knew his own father wouldn't do more than show up at the funeral for the sake of presenting a respectable front. No, if he failed, his mother would be the only one crying. He felt Spike's arm tighten.
"Me? Not done anythin', and I won't 'til I can find that wanker. Just thought you'd like a look is all." Spike nodded toward the theater. He sounded calm, but Xander could feel the muscles twitch, and he knew the infinite variations of Spike's eyebrows well enough to see the tension rolling off.
"And him?" This time Xander jumped as Angelus gestured toward him.
"I'm just, you know, riding along," he blurted quickly, but Angelus didn't respond or even look at him.
"What kind of game are you playing with his life, William? I told you before that if you continue this nonsense I will take your play toy away." Angelus took a step forward, but Spike didn't move, leaving Xander unable to back away from the impending fight; however, he wasn't going to go down without some sort of objection. If he had little to no chance with Spike, his chances of surviving Spike's older, larger, more powerful sire were somewhere between zero and not a chance in hell.
"Hey now," he began in his strongest voice, "I am not a play toy, and no one gets to take me anywhere."
"Boy," Angelus began.
"No, not boy, 'Xander.' Alexander if you must, but not 'boy'." And that got the tall vampire's attention. Angelus turned and looked at him as though seeing him for the first time.
"I didn't mean to insult you, but you must admit that compared to me, you are young."
"Yeah, that still doesn't make me a boy, it just makes you old," he snapped back, and he could feel Spike twitch with suppressed laughter.
"You tell 'em, pet."
"William," Angelus' tone carried a warning of future pain; Xander knew that tone.
"Bloody hell, you're the one what started this," Spike pointed out and Xander found himself agreeing.
"Xander," Angelus began, now obviously ignoring Spike to the point of turning so that Angelus' body faced him and not Spike, "Spike cannot hurt you while I'm here. Just tell me where you live, and I'll take you home before I head back to the office." Of all the things he had expected, this hadn't even made the list. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out the game that Angelus was playing. Did the vampire want to get him alone and away from Spike? Did the soul mean that he was offended by Cassidy's claim? He might just be offended by Spike's obvious affection and intimate embrace. Maybe Angelus didn't see him as good enough for the family—he would hardly be the first to voice that opinion. Then again, the whole man-on-man love thing was rather unpopular way back when, so maybe Spike's proprietary arm made Angelus angry. Were vampires homophobic? Xander considered a whole new possible depth of gay-bashing.
"Uh, thanks Angelus, but I think I'll stick it out here," he finally answered after several awkward seconds. He couldn't miss the flinch at the name.
"I go by Angel," the vampire corrected him.
"And I go by Spike, simple name really, innit? Fewer syllables than William, but you never do seem to remember." Xander couldn't believe that they were standing on the street having this argument when each passing minute increased the odds of Gunn or the crew showing up.
"Angelus, Angel, Spike, William, whatever. Does this really matter right now?" Angel's eyebrows rose to comical heights and the large vampire took a step back.
"Are you sure he's not yours? He sounds a lot like you," Angel dryly commented to Spike, and from the corner of his eye, Xander could see Spike smirk.
"Nope, the whelp came like that. Anyway, Xander's right. I called you to look at that mojo—think it might be related to that wanker Cassidy. Lots of minions around, claiming their masters were killed by mojo, and Cassidy's the only new master in town." Angel sighed so loudly that Xander could clearly hear it and see the wide chest rise and fall. Damn, when did vampires get so damn cute? And unless he was mistaken, Spike had just used his name for the first time. Did that mean something? With a start, he suddenly realized that the vampire had never asked for his name; the bastard felt him up and didn't even know his name. Xander felt a hot flash of anger, and within a second, Spike turned a confused look toward him.
"Pet?"
"It's just this place," Xander waved toward the building vaguely even though he felt like he could stake Spike right there on the sidewalk.
"Yeah, that's why I brought ya'. You need to tell Peaches everything that happened the other night."
"You were here?" Angel turned a surprised look toward him.
"Yeah. I was here when Fredrick died." Xander thought he had edited out the guilt, but obviously not because Spike had that "I told you not to do that" look, and Angel had the strangest expression on his face—nearly emotionless but still distant and cold in a way. Yeah, definitely not going anywhere with that vampire. At least not if anyone gave him a choice.
"Tell me what happened," Angel commanded in a voice that expected an immediate answer. Angel held out his arm in an obvious invitation for Xander to go first. Catching a quick look at Spike, he realized that Spike expected him to do exactly that.
"We came because Gunn had seen some vamps—better dressed than usual. Six of us came in through the broken boards there," Xander walked in the front door and then gestured toward the side where light came in through the lopsided boards. Once in the lobby, he could almost feel his backpack and hear the crew members steps even though the two vampires walked silently. Taking a deep breath, he continued. "We smelled this horrible stink, but we started walking toward the back."
"Day or night?" Angel interrupted him.
"Late afternoon. The roof has lots of holes in the front, so we had pretty good light in here." Angel just nodded and made vague gesture that he should continue even as Angel started looking around behind counters.
"We started walking down the hall toward the main theater; every time we have to clean this place out, the vamps always nest in there."
"Sewer access is in there," Angel offered as he continued to open drawers and cabinet doors behind the now ruined snack counter.
"We never found a sewer access, but we do always find them back there, so we started back with Gunn in the lead. When a vampire came out the main doors, Gunn attacked. We all turned on our lights and when I went to move the lights into position, Fredrick disappeared. I called for Gunn who charged into the main room, and then I went in after him."
"How many vampires in there?"
"I don't know. I barely got in the door when a vamp grabbed my light and threw it out; the whole room got really dark. I caught one vampire by accident when I first lost my light. The second vamp didn't realize my eyes had adjusted to the dark, so I staked him after a minute or so later." All this time he had wandered down the fateful hall and now his hand rested on the handle. He knew the two vampires stood behind him, but he still couldn't contain a shudder when he opened the door. Where he had expected darkness and memory, two flood lights with car batteries lighted the space behind the screen and a diffuse light flooded the whole auditorium.
"Your eyes adjusted?" Angel asked as he followed behind Spike who, Xander now noticed, worked very hard to stay between him and his sire.
"Eyes do that in the dark."
"Cordelia?" Angel yelled, and a giant shadow figure appeared on the screen as a woman stepped between it and the light.
"I hope you know you're paying me overtime for this, mister."
"Of course. Can you shut the two lights off for a few minutes?"
"No, I can't. It'll be dark in here."
"I'm aware of that. Please, Cordelia."
"Double overtime," a petulant voice floated back as first one light and then the other switched off. Xander waited in the dark, but nothing happened.
"And the point of this is?" he asked the featureless darkness.
"My point exactly," came the female voice from behind the screen. "Can I turn it back on now?"
"Just wait a minute," Angel asked. "Xander, can you see Spike?" He squinted and struggled to make out the shadowy forms he knew stood nearby.
"No,” he finally admitted.
"Try harder."
"Bloody hell, he said 'no.'" Spike snapped, and Xander had to laugh at the frustration he could hear in the tone.
"Xander, you said you could see the vampire in here."
"Maybe there was some sort of dim light somewhere; I don't know."
"Lay off, Peaches."
"Don't tell me what to do, Childe. I am your sire."
"Bleedin' hell you are, you walked out on me, me and Dru, so don't you start using that sire bollocks on me now."
"Watch your tongue if you intent to keep it," warned a growling voice, and now Xander knew terror. What if the soul was gone? What would this vampire do to him, to Spike?
"Angel?" came a confused feminine voice from behind the screen. At the sound of muffled impacts, Xander turned to his right and peered into the darkness until he could see two forms struggling. Fortunately, their different shapes made it possible to tell which was which. Unfortunately, Angel obviously had Spike bent over backwards and pinned to a row of molding chairs.
"Look at him," Angel demanded and suddenly he could see not only Angel's gold eyes but also Spike's.
"Bloody hell." The two shadows separated, and Xander looked in confusion from one to the other as the shapes moved toward him, one on the right and one on the left.
"What?" he finally asked when the shapes took positions several feet from him and waited.
"Pet, how much can you see?" Spike finally asked.
"Shadows, outlines. Not much," Xander admitted.
"Cordelia," Angel called out.
"Can I turn the lights on now?" she demanded in a very aggravated tone.
"In a second. First, tell me how much you can see."
"You know I can't see anything. It's totally dark in here." Xander watched the Angel-shadow walk down the aisle and up the stairs, and Spike's hand gently guided him to follow.
"Can you see me?" Angel asked, when he reached the top of the stairs and stood at the corner of the screen. Spike stopped him a couple of feet behind Angel.
"Okay, that's just creepy, mister. Floating gold eyes, that's what I see."
"And now?" Xander could see the gold eyes blink out; the vampire must have returned to his human face.
"And we're back to pointing out the obvious—it's too dark to see in here, at least for those of us who still shop for tanning lotion."
"Okay, one last question," Xander saw the two yellow eyes blink back into existence inside the Angel-shadow. Angel made a gesture and Spike and Xander joined him behind the curtain. "Cordelia, how many gold eyes do you see?" A sharp gasp filled the silence.
"Six. Good god, you brought vampires back here; I am so going to stake you." With that, the lights flipped back on, and Xander blinked uncomfortably as a beautiful brunet waved a large stake in Angel's face even as Angel held up his hands in surrender.
"It was an experiment; you're safe," Angel insisted even as he backed up a couple of steps. He took a closer look at the small woman who had an ancient master vampire backing up, but she just appeared to be a normal human. A very determined normal human waving a large stake, but even he could see that the point only marginally pointed in Angel's direction.
"Are you sure you didn't get happy out there?" Cordelia asked, and he remembered Spike's comment about a soulless Angel causing real problems back in Sunnydale. So this woman knew about Angel, and she still worked with him. Nervy. Xander could see himself going for her if he wasn't gay; he found strength sexy, and she seemed to have it in spades.
"Believe me, I was with Spike; I did not even approach happy."
"Oh yeah, and you're the life of the party," Spike snorted. "Trust me, Peaches here needs magical help to get happy; his life is one giant brood."
"You noticed," Cordelia responded with a small smile. "However, you're still vampires and I'm definitely a stake-first kind of girl." The point of the stake wobbled over in their general direction.
"Cordelia," Angel said, but this time his voice carried only a tired sort of frustration, not the threat it carried when he spoke Spike's name. Xander wondered how much that had to hurt. He remembered how his father would be nice to other kids and how that made him feel even more worthless each time he heard it. "Spike is my childe, and Xander is not a vampire." Xander wondered what would make her even think that, but then his brain finally processed her commented. Six.
"I go all glowy in the eyes?" Xander asked in amazement as he looked from one person to another.
"Yeah, pet. You do."
"Cool. I guess the whole unwanted visitor is good for something. God, no wonder Gunn looked at me so strange that night. He must have freaked."
"Xander, this isn't part of your claim mark," Angel said softly.
"Angel, this has to be part of my claim mark. Glowing eyes do not run in my family," Xander pointed out as he rolled his eyes. Angel sighed again.
"No, the demon doesn't show in a claimed human. Something is seriously wrong here." Angel looked like he had a serious case of constipation, and Xander felt like he had missed all the notes and someone was asking him to take a test.
"Human eyes don't glow; demon eyes do. It seems pretty clear that the demon is showing in *this* claimed human."
"Xander, the demon in a claim responds to its master, not its host. Your master isn't here, so the demon should be dormant."
"Should be, could be, might be," he shrugged, "but clearly isn't." He suspected that Spike had called up his demon when threatened, but he had no intention of sharing that particular theory.
"Is someone going to explain this to me or do I have to start torturing people?" Cordelia asked, and he turned to really look at her. She certainly seemed familiar, but he couldn't place her. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail that made her seem young, but the pencil stuck behind one ear and the laptop sitting in her lap now that she had returned to the floor and the scattered drawings reminded him more of Willow than anyone else.
"It's a long story," Angel sighed.
"That you'll tell me all about on our way back to the office," Cordelia assumed with a smile as she started collecting the various drawings and shutting down the computer. "Starting with who the blond is and why you two were fighting." Spike had made an offended noise when called "blond," but Cordelia ignored it as if he didn't even exist.
"We weren't fighting; I was just trying to make a point about Xander," Angel explained as she finished her gathering
"And by the way, the next time you're trying to make a point, you keep your bloody hands off me," Spike spoke up as Xander felt the arm slip back into its familiar place around his waist. Cordelia's eyes widened, but she didn't comment as she thrust the laptop at Angel and took the portfolio with the drawings in her own arms. Angel ignored both the arm and the complaint.
"I sketched and Cordelia scanned all the symbols," Angel explained as he gestured toward the reddish-brown figures that Xander had avoided looking at. "Xander, I need you to help me figure out the smell."
"Uh, a really gross cross between industrial ammonia and dead stuff?"
"I need to know what potion they might have used. If we could head over to Thopis, we might be able to narrow that down more."
"Oi, I don't want him anywhere near that place. There's mojo enough there to poison an elephant." Xander had thought that the previous evening had been bad, but he was quickly learning to hate the way these two argued. He was tired enough to sleep for a week.
"I can't be more specific, Angel," he explained earnestly.
"We can pull out a few ingredients, see if any of the smells are familiar," Angel explained in a hopeful tone. "This looks like a big spell and a dangerous one at that. We need information." Angel gestured toward the strange, ragged figures decorating the walls.
"No bloody chance. Got places to go, people to eat."
"William, I catch you killing and I'll stake you myself."
"Right," Spike drawled. "I figured you'd be more the type to stand back and critique my performance. You know, 'Kill 'em slower, Spike,' 'Can't you cause more pain than that, Spike?'" Shit, after a couple centuries you'd think they'd grow up. This sounded like him and his father before dear old dad had just stopped showing up.
"Spike," Xander used a warning tone of his own as he almost felt the room grow colder.
"William," Angel growled as the gold reappeared in his eyes.
"Oh for god's sake, dump some testosterone and get a life," Cordelia insisted as she walked between the two and grabbed the strap of the computer, pulling Angel along after her. "Come on, you can follow us to Thopis."
"Never said I'd go," Spike shouted to Cordelia's and Angel's backs, but the two figures just left without a reply.
"She's interesting," Xander commented. "And Angel's a stud; you never said he was such a stud." He waited for the reaction, and three…two…one…
"Bloody hell, you go lookin' at him, and you won't have to worry about havin' eyes—glowin' or not."
"What?" Xander asked with his best innocent voice. Spike narrowed his eyes and stared while he simply blinked back with wide, naïve blinks. It was one of his best looks, and he knew it.
"Bloody little shit," Spike complained as he let go and started up the aisle where the other two had disappeared. "Still never agreed to go."
"Yeah," he agreed as he trotted after Spike. "But you're the one who said that something's wrong, and you're the one who called Peaches because you thought he could fix it. I say we go along."
"Hate it when you do the bloody logical bit."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he shot back, suddenly feeling more cheerful than he had since the whole mess had started. He wasn't the demon-magnet loser; he was Xan-man the glowy eyed…man. Okay, he really needed to find a better rhyme before he said that one out loud.